GT Class Porsche team takes top honors at Daytona

The last two years of Kevin Buckler's racing career have been nothing short of phenomenal. By winning the GT class at Daytona and at Le Mans in 2002, this owner of The Racer's Group — the Sears Point-based team that campaigns RSs in both the American Le Mans Series and Grand American racing series-became only the fourth American to win the Porsche Cup, an award given to the top independent Porsche driver in the world. Then, to top it all off, Buckler drove his familiar blue Porsche 911 GT3 RS to an overall victory at this year's Rolex 24, the first time since 1977 that a 911 — based Porsche has won the famed Daytona enduro. We caught up with Buckler-an almost-unbelievable three-for-three in the world's most significant 24-hour races — when he still hadn't come down from the euphoria of beating the Grand-Am's new Daytona Prototype cars in their first race, this year's Rolex 24.

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Going to Daytona, did you feel that you had a shot at an overall victory?

Well, we knew we had a little chance at it. But I don't like eating words, so we made no references anywhere, printed or verbal, about it prior to the race. Our best results always come when we put our heads down and work hard. Our key was focus.

What's your initial impression of the Daytona Prototype Class?

I'm in support of it. They are working toward "NASCAR-izing" sports car racing, and is there really anything wrong with that? NASCAR has proven that it's a magic formula, and if what truly we are after is to be in the big leagues with our sports car formula, why are we trying to reinvent the wheel? Why not go to something simpler, better and easier to follow? Everybody is complaining that the cars are too close in speed, but the Daytona Prototypes are completely at the beginning of their evolutionary cycle. Cars that ran 1 minute 50 seconds in qualifying this year...well, I can pretty much tell you that next year the same car will be doing 47s or 48s. Our Porsches are 100-percent developed. They're pretty much maxed out. Nobody is going to come along with a GT3 R tomorrow and find two seconds. But I guarantee somebody will in a Daytona Prototype in the next two months.

How concerned were you with the Ferraris at Daytona?

Really concerned. I guarantee that that team, the Risi team, tested and prepared more for this race — especially on the financial side — than anybody. They used the best equipment, the best drivers, the best crew, the best engineers, and they did a lot of testing at Florida tracks. Two problems kept them off our tail. One was a wheel that came off, which cost them seven laps, and the other was a problem with the paddle shifter that cost them two more laps. We only beat them by 9 laps, so they were right there. Their Ferrari is not quite as fast in a straight line, but it kills us under braking and in the corners, so it pretty much balances out.

How did you do compared to your Porsche-supplied driving teammates?

I'm a professional driver, and I drive exactly the same times as Timo Bernhard and Jorg Bergmeister. We are identical. It's funny because nobody expects the team owner to be the lead driver. But in our case, I'm the one who qualifies the car, and I do my fair share of the driving. That said, Timo and Jorg did an absolutely fantastic job and never put a wheel off. None of us did.

What's next for the Racer's Group?

We really want to take it Alex Job Racing in the ALMS, and we want to help Porsche win the championship. We're nervous about the ; they're coming like a freight train. The next thing for me is to find a primary sponsor. We're also going back to Le Mans to defend our title. I am going to try to enter two cars. I know I've got one in; I don't know about the second one. Le Mans is a big deal for us.

You've always been a champion of small privateer efforts. Now you're getting some factory support. How is it different now for you as a team?

Well, Porsche doesn't want to align themselves with a team that can't do the job. You can't blame them. The support feels good, because we were raised really lean. For years, I didn't have any kind of budget or funding...it was all hard work and sweat equity. We'd pick up drivers from race to race and try to do our best. Then, finally, last year, we broke the cycle. We got a little help at Daytona last year, which allowed me to get a little bit better equipment, a little bit better drivers, and we put together a winning combination and we won last year. We're lean and mean, and now that we've had a little help, we can really make it go.